We recently connected with Heather Tyler and have shared our conversation below.

Heather, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Ooooo, good question. You know, sometimes the meaningful ones come as a total surprise, a gift – just when you need them the most. Other times, you manifest them, create them for yourself, because you’re actually searching for meaning in your work or for purpose, in general. I’ve had several meaningful projects over the years. Let me think on some specifics to share in a bit…

Heather, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Heather L. Tyler, and I’ve been an actor for a long time. Performing is my passion, and I have pursued it for that reason rather than for fame. I have a theatre degree, and I learned more than just how to act onstage. I learned empathy, self-awareness, and how to look at things from another point of view. I studied our storytelling traditions and the history of theatre, from ancient Greece to Broadway. I was taught to constantly ask: what does it mean to be a human? I learned we have a need to create, to ask questions, to share stories. Please feel free to reach out to me on IG with any questions, and see my IMDB link or website for more background. I’m really excited to jump into these interview questions.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Knowing how to pivot is essential in this business. Actors have to master the pivot to get (and keep) the job, right? We don’t go far if we can’t take direction – and sometimes that vision is very different from our own, so we pivot. But, we have to pivot in larger ways, too. Look at the pandemic and how we found new ways to tell our stories, and now, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike…the work stoppage causes us to pivot again. I have two intertwined stories of how pivoting in life and work led to something great. Let’s start at the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns. One of my representatives urged us to use the time wisely – to create our own content, write things, shoot things, stay creative. I did a deep dive brainstorm and began creating characters for myself and my colleagues – roles that were specific to our strengths. I love mysteries and (not too dark) thrillers. I’d always wanted to play an FBI agent, and I wanted lots of strong females. I created this web series, and several of us shot our scenes over zoom and at home using our own cameras for close-ups, other angles, etc. We completed it, but – I will not lie – it wasn’t great. (Zoom does not great content make!) Filmmaking is a visual medium, and it just didn’t do what we needed it to do, so I never released it. BUT, we each had a moment of something we could pull to use as a clip on our casting profile or add to our reel. I made the pivot from actor to writer and producer – it kept me sane, and I learned what works and what doesn’t when taking a DIY approach. Cut to this year. After being dropped by that same representative, funny enough, I was motivated to work harder than ever – and differently. This pivot was hard, almost an about face. I returned to my love of theatre first, and found an unexpected opportunity – thinking I was just understudying a really cool supporting role, one that embodied my pent up rage/so-over-this/pass-the-wine mantra, I wound up playing the lead in Happy Birthday, McKenna! That show propelled me forward. That role challenged me, forced me to play a character I’d been avoiding, allowed me to be strong, and funny and vulnerable and inconsiderate of others – onstage – which turns out, is a blast! (And I’m forever grateful for Steve Silverman, the Writer/Director, for the opportunity, not to mention Kathleeen O’Grady, Producer, Victoria Hoffman, Casting Director and the cast of incredible talent that was onstage each night.) After that successful run, I revisited that webseries I’d started years earlier, and with the help of my writing partner, Gloria Iseli, we turned it into a feature film. She became the Director, I produced and starred in it, and we (drumroll, please!) completed principal photography on Delta County this week. (NOTE: I am a proud SAG-AFTRA member. The project is under the Micro Project Agreement, which is not a struck contract – otherwise, we would have halted production. As it was, we shot in my home state of Arkansas for a week, and then returned to LA just as the strike was beginning. With confirmation we were allowed to continue, we completed the film. I’m out on the picket lines as much as I can be – I volunteer as a gate captain and frequent Netflix. Please come say hi – you don’t have to be a member to strike with us. There are DJs, food trucks, it’s a congenial atmosphere. And we’re united in our efforts to secure a fair deal. That’s all I’ll say about that.) That pivot – not relying on someone else to get or give me work – was empowering. I listened to myself, I respected my desire to create, I gave myself a break. I created characters that resonate in me, where I come from, how I see things. They’re flawed, authentic, funny, messy humans trying, trying to do better. The film is about loss. We all had loss, so much, in the years of the pandemic. We carry each other’s grief, each other’s sorrow, our collective healing is hard and takes time. The film came out of that. And misunderstandings. And good intentions. And even seeing the beauty in the dead, the dying, the unhoused, the dirty water, the heat, the humidity, the dichotomous landscapes of California’s deserts and Arkansas’ waterways and woods. The two sides of me, the Gemini twins. Dueling forces of be yourself, and play this role. Be the authentic you and the you that will get you in the door, get you seen, get you hired. It’s so hard to be seen. Really seen. A career that puts you in the spotlight but doesn’t see you. That’s so weird, so ironic. Right now, putting myself in charge, I feel seen. I see all my fellow creatives out there, walking the line. Another pivot. And that is so empowering, for all of us.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Being a creative means we are constantly balancing two things: we need to make our art (create) and we need to work (get the job). Both are necessary, and too often not the same. In other words, we do a commercial or a small role on a big movie or tv show – when we can get them – to pay the bills. We create our own work because we have to, because we’re artists, because we’re human. It’s like a dancer rehearsing, or a painter trying things on their canvas, or a woodworker carving another piece of wood, or a jewelry maker…and so on. Back to the getting the job part – that part – which so often requires the very least of our full body of skills, only a tiny part of us and our range – takes so incredibly much. It is like proving you can unclog a toilet like no other plumber can…and you smell the best, and wear the nicest, most appropriate clothing, and have the best hair and body type – the one you’re looking for, and look naturally attractive and, and… It’s the path we’ve chosen, we know that. We prep an audition within days – not just learning lines, but creating an entire character with a lived life and a full understanding of the moment, but still natural and authentic, even without the script sometimes – we use our own phone cameras and lighting set-ups and editing skills and software, do our own hair/makeup/wardrobe appropriate for the character and get the file to our agents and managers to get to the casting directors to get to the producer/director/writer/showrunner/studio executive…to book that one small role on that one big show…over and over. We can unplug that toilet like no other plumber. We are hard workers. We are not elites. We want to share our stories and our art with you. We want you to like us. We want to know your stories, we want to know you. Because our art – what we create is for you, and it is you.

What does it mean to be human? I’ll keep asking…

Contact Info:

• Website: http://heatherltyler.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherltyler/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heatherltyler
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherltyler/
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2430873/

Image Credits
Joanna DeGeneres Photography; D. Matt Jordan; Steve Silverman; Rexford Productions